The sword requires an Attack level of 50 and a Slayer level of 55 to wield. It is a good alternative to the leaf-bladed spear as it attacks faster, has higher slash and stab bonuses, and is one-handed, enabling the use of a shield or defender if required.

Players with an Attack level of 65 are greatly encouraged to use a leaf-bladed battleaxe instead, as it has a 17.5% damage buff against turoths and kurasks, apart from having better stats than the sword counterpart.

The dragon scimitar is one of the most popular weapons in RuneScape; it is a fast, one-handed weapon with decent strength and accuracy. Scimitars are also considered to be much better than regular swords of the same metal. For example, rune scimitars are better than rune swords in both accuracy and strength but equal in speed. The leaf-bladed sword is considered a good substitute for the dragon sword. It has a lower strength bonus than the scimitar just as it is with other metals, but the attack bonuses are identical, making the leaf-bladed sword more useful in certain circumstances than other swords would be.

The leaf-bladed sword's stab bonus of 67 is the same as the dragon scimitar's slash bonus of 67. Because the two weapons share the same attack speed and accuracy, the leaf-bladed sword is a more accurate option for killing monsters that are weak against stab attacks, such as chromatic dragons or metal dragons. When coupled with any defender, the leaf-bladed sword will surpass the dragon scimitar in overall stats due to the additional stab bonus granted by the defender. For example, a leaf-bladed sword and dragon defender will have a stab bonus of 92 while the dragon scimitar and dragon defender will have a slash bonus of 91. The difference is small, but may be more useful for long-term training.

With a defender, the leaf-bladed sword is more accurate than the dragon scimitar, does not require the completion of a Master quest (Monkey Madness I), and only requires 50 Attack to wield. However, the strength bonus of the scimitar is 66 while the sword has only 50 (76% of the scimitar's bonus): at 99 Strength and wielding only the weapons, a leaf-bladed sword can hit 21 while the dragon scimitar can hit 24. The leaf-bladed sword also lacks a special attack (though most players agree the dragon scimitar's special attack is not very useful outside PvP worlds or PvP activities) and requires 55 Slayer to wield.

The leaf-bladed sword does have the advantage of being a strong weapon against turoths or kurasks, and having a lower price. If slash must be used, other weapon such as a dragon scimitar or an abyssal whip would be preferred.